First Rule: Don't Fall For The Enemy

CHAPTER 15

ADRIAN'S POV

The private jet felt different on the return flight. The air between Elise and me was charged with everything that had happened in Miami, everything that had changed between us. I tried to focus on the contract revisions on my laptop, but I kept finding myself watching her instead.

She sat across from me, pretending to review documents, but I could see the way her eyes kept drifting to me when she thought I wasn't looking. The memory of last night—of her in my arms, of the way she'd looked at me when I'd told her about my family—made it impossible to concentrate on business.

"The Henderson merger looks solid," she said, though her voice lacked its usual professional crispness.

"Does it?" I closed my laptop and leaned back, studying her face. "Because you've been staring at the same page for ten minutes."

Color flooded her cheeks, and I felt that familiar surge of satisfaction at being able to affect her so easily. "I was concentrating."

"On what, exactly?" I unbuckled my seatbelt and moved to the seat beside her, drawn by an invisible force I couldn't resist. "Because it wasn't those contracts."

"I was thinking about the meeting with Hamilton Industries," she said, but her breathing had changed, quickened.

"Liar." I couldn't help but smile at how transparent she was. "You were thinking about last night."

Her breath caught audibly. "Adrian—"

"About the way I made you feel. The way you said my name when I—"

"Stop." She glanced toward the front of the plane, where my pilot and flight attendant were separated from us by a partition. "Someone might hear you."

"No one can hear us back here." I reached for her hand, threading our fingers together. The simple contact sent electricity through me. "Besides, I like the way you blush when I talk about it."

"You're impossible."

"I'm honest." I brought our joined hands to my lips, pressing a kiss to her knuckles. "Last night changed everything, Elise. You know that, don't you?"

I could see the conflict in her eyes, the way she was fighting whatever internal battle was raging inside her. But when she looked at me, when our eyes met, I saw love there. Real, honest love that matched what I was feeling.

"I know," she whispered.

"Good." The relief in my voice was probably embarrassing, but I didn't care. "Because I meant what I said. About falling for you."

Something flickered across her expression—pain, maybe, or fear. "Adrian, when we get back—"

"When we get back, nothing changes." I needed her to understand this, needed her to know that I wasn't going to retreat behind professional boundaries now that we'd crossed this line. "Not between us."

"Everything changes. We'll be back to boss and employee, back to professional boundaries—"

"Fuck professional boundaries." The vehemence in my own voice surprised me. In fifteen years of running this company, I'd never let personal feelings interfere with business. But Elise wasn't just personal feelings—she was everything. "I'm done pretending I don't want you, done acting like what we have doesn't matter."

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying I want you in my life. Really in my life." I traced my thumb across her knuckles, marveling at how something so simple could feel so intimate. "I want to take you to dinner without calling it a business meeting. I want to wake up with you in my bed without it being because we're traveling."

Her green eyes were wide, vulnerable. "That's complicated."

"Everything worthwhile is complicated." I echoed my words from the night before. "The question is whether you want it too."

"You know I do."

The certainty in her voice made something loosen in my chest. "Then we'll figure it out. Together."

But even as I said it, I could see her withdrawing, could feel her pulling back into herself. "I should freshen up before we land."

I wanted to argue, wanted to keep her here where I could touch her, where I could see the love in her eyes. But I could see she needed space to process everything that had happened.

"Of course."

I watched her walk toward the airplane's bathroom, admiring the way her dress hugged her curves, remembering how it had felt to peel it off her the night before. The memory made heat pool low in my stomach, made me want to follow her back there and—

"Adrian?" Her voice called from the bathroom, interrupting my increasingly inappropriate thoughts.

"Yes?"

"I need help. My zipper is stuck."

Every rational thought fled my mind. "Do you want me to—"

"Please."

I was on my feet before she'd finished the word, moving toward the small bathroom like a man possessed. She was standing with her back to the mirror, her dress half-unzipped, struggling to reach the zipper that had caught on the fabric.

"Turn around," I said, my voice rougher than usual.

She obeyed, facing the mirror, and I stepped behind her. Our eyes met in the reflection, and I saw my own desire mirrored in her gaze. My fingers found the zipper, working carefully to free it from where it had caught.

"It's caught on the fabric," I managed to say. "Hold still."

But holding still seemed to be the last thing either of us was capable of. As I worked the zipper free, my knuckles brushed against her bare skin, and I felt her shiver at the contact. In the mirror, I could see the way her breathing had changed, could see the flush spreading across her chest.

"There," I said as the zipper finally gave way.

But instead of stepping back, instead of giving her the space a gentleman would give, my hands lingered on her shoulders. The dress had fallen open, revealing the smooth expanse of her back, and I couldn't resist tracing one finger along her spine.

"Elise," I murmured, watching her eyes flutter closed in the mirror.

"We should—" she started, but the words died when I pressed a soft kiss to the side of her neck.

"Should what?" My lips trailed along the column of her throat, tasting the sweetness of her skin. "Go back to our seats and pretend this isn't happening?"

"Yes," she breathed, but she was already tilting her head to give me better access.

You drive me insane."

I leaned in, lips brushing the curve of her neck. She shivered.

"Adrian..."

"Tell me to stop."

She didn’t.

I kissed her neck, then her shoulder, then lower. Her head tilted back. My hands slid around her waist, pulling her gently against me. She was soft, tense, and already breathing faster.

"This dress is going to be a puddle at your feet in ten seconds," I murmured.

"Then shut up and take it off."

I did.

The fabric pooled to the floor. She stepped out of it, completely bare. I turned her to face me, and when our eyes met, I wasn’t Adrian the soldier or the billionaire or the cold bastard with a jet.

I was hers.

Our mouths crashed together. Her hands tangled in my shirt, tugging it up over my head. I lifted her, her legs wrapping around my waist, her back pressing against the wall.

"I want you now," she breathed.

"Good. Because I’m not waiting."

I reached for her thighs, spreading them wider. Her heat pressed against my stomach. I kissed her again, biting her lip, swallowing her moan.

"Adrian—"

"I know. I know."

My hands found her ass, lifting her as I aligned us. She gasped as I slid inside her slowly, inch by inch, giving her time to feel every part of me. She was hot, tight, clenching around me.

"God, you feel like heaven."

She moaned, arching into me. I started to move, slow at first, savoring the way she held me, the way her nails raked down my back.

"Faster," she begged.

"Say please."

"Adrian—please."

I obeyed.

Thrust after thrust, her breath hitched, her body rocked, and her moans grew louder. The sound of skin meeting skin echoed in the small space, drowned only by the hum of the engines.

"Say my name."

"Adrian… Adrian…"

She came hard, her body trembling around me. I followed seconds later, groaning into her neck as I spilled inside her.

We stayed there, tangled, breathless, clinging to each other like the world might end.

And maybe it had.